Use Ethernet-over-Powerline for HD video

Wireless home networks (normally using Wi-Fi technology) are not adequate to the task. Wi-Fi is suitable for sharing Internet connections between computers, where network traffic is light and bursty. But High-Definition (HD) video needs higher bandwidth and predictable Quality of Service (QoS) to provide an acceptable viewing experience. Only a wired medium can offer this.

Why Ethernet-over-Powerline makes sense
A user has several options to choose from when setting up a wired home network (See Fig. 1). Ethernet-over-Powerline (EoP) is emerging as the most viable alternative to other home networking technologies, for several reasons:

• Powerlines are ubiquitous--powerline technology turns each electrical socket in a user's home into a potential network port
• Ethernet over Powerline products are plug-and-play devices, and involve no rewiring
• Powerline products today offer data rates of up to 200Mbps and multiple Quality of Service (QoS) levels. This makes them suitable for streaming HD and standard-definition video
• Powerline networks provide two levels of content security. A malicious user has to first break into your home and plug into the power sockets. Then they must overcome the encryption that is built in to EoP.
• The Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology on which EoP is based ensures guaranteed bandwidth for video transport.

The basics of EoP
In EoP systems, copper wires that are used to distribute power inside homes also act as the medium to transmit digital data. The system typically operates by superimposing a modulated carrier frequency on the AC signal carried on a powerline.

The concept of using powerlines as a data-communication medium has been around since the 1970s. But until the late 1990s, EoP technology only offered a low bit-rate that only provided enough bandwidth for the transmission of control signals. Now, new algorithms to overcome noise on the powerline channel have made powerlines a viable high-speed digital content carrier. At the same time, silicon computing power is so inexpensive that these computationally-intensive algorithms can be implemented on a single chip that is cost-effective enough to be affordable to the mass market.

An EoP system starts with a transmitter that converts digital data from a PC or any network-connected device to analogue line data, and then overlaps the analogue line data with the powerline. At the receiver end, it converts the analogue line data inputted through the powerline to digital signals and transfers them to the appropriate device (See Fig. 2).

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